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Adapting ToA
'Tomb of Annihilation' The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who’s ever been raised from the dead. Victims grow thinner and weaker each day, slowly but steadily sliding toward the death they once denied. When they finally succumb, they can’t be raised—and neither can anyone else, regardless of whether they’ve ever received that miracle in the past. Temples and scholars of divine magic are at a loss to explain a curse that has affected the entire region, and possibly the entire world. The cause is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger, which is located somewhere in Chult, a mysterious peninsula far to the south, ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests. Adventure design by Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, and Steve Winter, with additional design by Adam Lee. Story consulting by the award-winning creator of Adventure Time, Pendleton Ward. Designed as a complex, world-affecting situation unfolding in peninsula of Chult (deep southern Faerûn), this could come before or after the Zero Hour Campaign. The ToA campaign's default setting is outside normal Lords' Alliance influence, much less Stonehearth jurisdiction, but the global impact of the Death Curse would bring a swift response from Stonehearth. Check out the Wizards of the Coast link for the excellent Tomb of Annihilation campaign. Here's how a rumble in the jungle would look, adapting it according to the Subjects, Allies or Opponents approach noted in the Crucible. 'Subjects' Stonehearth subjects are likely to have grown up within the jurisdiction and are already "in the system." A third-party campaign like this is unlikely to have level-1 characters that are in the Stonehearth Arms at any level be deployed to areas outside the jurisdiction, but it's distinctly possible that a regional immigrant and recent Stonehearth citizen could have just completed training and perhaps their first deployment rotation when the Death Curse starts afflicting Toril. The Sergeants-at-Arms (SA) would tap the PC (or PCs) for Temporary Additional Duty, sending them back to their home region in an "unofficial capacity" to do some "scouting." This could work for multiple entry-level PCs, or just one as the rest of the party plays as Allies. Note: while Chult is well outside the usual Lords' Alliance sphere of influence, Baldur's Gate plays a colonial role that echoes the historical European part in the Scramble for Africa. This alone could have interesting implication in the game as that's very different from how House Stonehearth would approach the area. If this campaign is played prior to Stonehearth's annexation of Baldur's Gate, this could add additional intrigue, including the possibility that bungling the approach to a curse that afflicts the entire world becomes the spark for Stonehearth finally taking over the Gate back in the Sword Coast. The campaign is designed to be on the harsh side, taking away character resurrection, and otherwise promoting retreat and surrender as viable combat options. DMs can even kick it up a notch to run it as a "meat grinder," with death save DCs at 15 rather than 10 (among other challenges). This is certainly an option if players want to run this campaign as an extended Direct Action mission. While it's unlikely that a standard Arms infantry soldier would be deployed, they certainly could be attached to a Marine, Ranger or Sergeant-at-Arms unit if they're originally from Chult (likely the northern city of Nyanzaru). Likewise, characters could themselves be a Arms Marine, Ranger or SA – with either a dedicated unit or a mix of specialists in a (you guessed it) Special Mission Unit. Even on meat-grinder mode, an Arms Marine, Ranger, SA (or even standard infantry), is likely to dominate the combat. That's okay. In fact, given the complexity, that might actually be preferred, allowing players to focus more on the role play than skirting the lethality of a zombie-infested jungle. Note: if the Arms came down to Chult in an official, emergency-response fashion, they arrive in soft-power mode. Chances are, they would set up operations in Port Nyanzaru and ally with the region trade princes rather than Fort Belurian as the politics is already complicated between Stonehearth and Baldur's Gate. Alternately, if this campaign is run after Stonehearth officially annexes the Gate, Fort Belurian would have shifted alliances to connect with the princes. Certain Lords' Alliance NPCs would have to be adjusted accordingly, though they could be retained for unexpected complications. 'Allies' This is a great opportunity to bring in new players, or players with new characters, who have inevitably heard of Stonehearth, and have likely traded with them or their close Lantanese partners (who are based in the islands just northwest of Chult). In this case, the in-book NPCs and monsters will be using default magic and rules, with the exception that spell scrolls and potions may have more availability in this world. There's an overlap-third option here, and that's to have Primal-enabled PCs come from Lantan itself. The Commonwealth (essentially an extension of Stonehearth) counts Lantan as a member and direct Arms could be deployed from the Lantan islands. Likewise, Lantanese adventurers decked out with more tech-savvy equipment could also hold their own quite well in the jungle. In the original ToA campaign, there are already ample story hooks for the PCs, and the DM can still lean on them for flavor, but the connection here is that there is a concerned traveler which may be an alternate, substitute or addition to the written NPCs. That concerned traveler may appear to be any number of things, such as a traveling merchant, but is, in fact, an SA agent that's scouting the area but reticent to take direct action because it's outside Stonehearth jurisdiction. In this case, the SA becomes the case officer and the players are local adventurers that become the agents. The SA may or may not reveal their identity right away, but will reward the PCs handsomely for getting the job done – and may even offer additional incentives such as highly-prized Primal Magic items. If the PCs play this at least ethical true-neutral or better, the SA would suggest (or offer) Stonehearth citizenship and possibly recruitment and training. 'Opponents' It is possible to play this campaign as a spoiler – though that will require extra homework on the part of the DM. This could work either for or against any of the factions in Chult (and the work would double again if the PCs work for Arcerak or the Yuan-ti as the whole campaign is oriented toward stopping him/them). Still... The PCs could be recruited by an SA, then hung out to dry by the rare bad apple. That lets the PCs fight the ToA opponents as written, but turns the PCs against Stonehearth. Spoilers: given some of the plot twists with the Lords' Alliance/Fort Belurian characters, this would be easy to do. Alternately, if the DM wants to rewrite this from the inside out, the players could play this in the role of the Red Wizards of Thay, the Zhents, or even the Yuan-ti. Category:DM/GM Notes